Manitoba Relaxes Restrictions on New Hog Barn Construction

CANADA - The general manager of Manitoba Pork reports the Manitoba government has agreed to relax restrictions on new hog barn construction in the province, writes Bruce Cochrane.

In 2008 the Manitoba government established permanent moratoriums on hog barn construction or expansion in southeastern Manitoba, the Red River Valley Special Management Area, including the Capital Region, and the Interlake, and those restrictions were extended to the entire province in mid-2011.

In his state of the industry address yesterday, Manitoba Pork general manager Andrew Dickson told those attending Manitoba Swine Seminar 2015 the province has agreed to relax those restrictions to allow for the construction of new finishing capacity.

Andrew Dickson-Manitoba Pork:

The provincial government has finally recognized that the environment regulations have to allow for some variance in the technologies that will be allowed with new barn construction, so there's an agreement now that producers could build barns if they used multi-cell storage systems, like a multi-cell lagoon.

There has to be two different streams of manure, the manure has to be applied on arable land, in other words it has to be injected into the soil, the soils can't have more than 60 parts per million, the application rates are going to be strictly controlled and they wish the location of any new facility to be located preferably in western Manitoba and there has to be a connection with a processing plant in some way.

The focus is on trying to build more finishing capacity in the province.

Mr Dickson is encouraging anyone interested in building new barns to come forward and Manitoba Pork will provide assistance in moving through the permitting process.